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February 8, 2013

PSHS Key Club collecting pop tabs to help families of sick children

By TAMMIE TOLER Princeton Times

PRINCETON — Princeton Senior High School Key Clubbers know that sometimes the smallest things make the biggest differences.

The 63 members of the service-oriented club are on a mission to collect as many pop tabs as possible to keep families together during health-care crises.

“Key Club picks a different district project every year. This year, Mrs. Foster-Holland brought up the Ronald McDonald House and all the good things they do,” Project Chairman Brandon Hicks explained.

Immediately, Key Club members jumped on board the effort, opting to conduct pop-tab drives at the school and possibly at Princeton Community Hospital, and to schedule routine visits to the Charleston Ronald McDonald House, where students and their advisers will prepare home-cooked meals for the families staying at the house.

Because only a few students at a time can make the trip to cook dinner for Charleston House families, Hicks has not experienced that facet of the Ronald McDonald House project yet. But, he’s heard touching stories from the friends who have.

“Mrs. Foster-Holland told us about a young mother she met there with a child in the hospital,” Hicks said. “Without the Ronald McDonald House, she would not have been able to stay there with her child. They keep families connected. That’s a choice no one likes to make — whether to take care of your family or leave them when they are sick.”

The district pop tab drive will continue through March 15, as the local Key Clubbers prepare for the district conference, but Foster-Holland and Hicks agreed that the Ronald McDonald House will likely continue as a local Key Club project.

While the pop can tabs might not seem like a big thing, they said it has huge benefits for the Ronald McDonald House.

“They use these pop tabs to keep the houses running. At the Charleston House, anybody can stay there who has a child under 21 in the hospital. If they have a medical card, the House can bill that medical card, but otherwise, they only ask a $20-per-night donation, if the person can afford to pay it. If they can’t pay it, they don’t have to,” Foster-Holland said. “So, these tabs, once recycled, provide a main way they run the houses.”

She said the Ronald McDonald House organization has a flatbed truck that can carry 12 large barrels of can tabs to a recycle program. She estimated each flatbed load of tabs results in approximately $700 to benefit the Ronald McDonald House.

While the project is known as a pop tab drive, Foster-Holland said the aluminum tabs can come from soup, fruit, pet food or any other aluminum container.

“The way you can tell if it’s aluminum or not is to try to stick it to a magnet. Aluminum doesn’t stick to magnets. If it’s aluminum, they can recycle it,” she said.

Meanwhile, Hicks said he hopes the community will get involved with the tab drive or consider volunteering as a family to prepare dinner for the Ronald McDonald House sometime.

For more information, call Princeton Senior High School at 304-425-8101.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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